Improvements promised for pedestrians at San Ysidro border crossing

TIJUANA — For tens of thousands of pedestrians going through the San Ysidro border crossing each day, the experience can be daunting.

Morning waits to enter the United States can last more than two hours — and twice that time during peak weekend periods. Travelers entering Mexico are greeted by a maze of stairs and ramps with hairpin turns. To reach public transportation, they typically have to squeeze past a snaking line of northbound pedestrians, then cross by bridge to the other side of Tijuana’s northbound vehicle lanes.

Last week’s formal opening of the 22-lane El Chaparral port of entry in Mexico included promises of faster and smoother crossings for the approximately 32,000 vehicles that head into Mexico each day through San Ysidro. But gains have yet to emerge for the roughly 50,000 daily pedestrians who travel north or south at the world’s busiest land border crossing.

“Past two hours, I kind of go crazy,” said Yvonne Esqueda, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen listening to music on her iPod while waiting to cross into San Diego County at 9 a.m. Thursday. “It’s tiring but I don’t have a choice,” said Esqueda, a Tijuana resident who studies in Chula Vista and works at Plaza Las Americas in San Ysidro.

The massive, binational reconfiguration of the San Ysidro port envisions improvements for pedestrians: more crossing lanes, new high-tech processing facilities in Mexico and the United States, and connections to public transportation hubs on both sides of the border. But so far, drivers are the ones who have seen the most dramatic changes.

“We’ve been so excited about having a speedier crossing vehicle-wise that we’ve forgotten about how important the pedestrians are,” said San Diego Councilman David Alvarez.

Roughly one-fifth of the 25,000 daily northbound crossers remain in San Ysidro to work, shop, visit family or engage in other activities, said Jason Wells, executive director of the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce and director of the San Ysidro Smart Border Coalition. Many more board the San Diego trolley or take other public transportation to work, schools, stores, banks, medical appointments and family gatherings across the county.

“The pedestrians are a regional issue. It’s not just a San Ysidro issue,” Wells said. “Those hotels in downtown San Diego, their workers are coming through this crossing.”

The northbound line on Thursday morning was about 1,200 people long, translating to a roughly two-hour wait. The pedestrians included a 21-year old U.S. citizen living in Tijuana and heading to work at the McDonald’s in San Ysidro, a 73-year-old Tijuana woman picking up a check in San Diego, a 59-year-old Tijuana homemaker preparing to shop in Chula Vista, a 63-year-old San Ysidro resident returning from a visit with her boyfriend, a Caltrans worker coming back home after visiting his ailing uncle in Tijuana and Ali Wittenburg, a 23-year-old former resident of La Mesa who moved to Tijuana after losing her job with a property management company.

“I don’t know how I put up with it. I just do because I’m trying to survive,” Wittenburg said.